Within large-scale data networks, such as the Internet, typically many users or clients will have a need to receive data from and transmit data to a central server. To accommodate this exchange of data a series of communications called scripts are typically passed between the client computers and the central server. One particular type of script is based upon a software language known as hypertext mark-up language ("HTML"). This language facilitates the presentation of text at a client computer in a form contains formatting commands (i.e., "mark-up") that are interpreted by the client computer in order to present formatted screen. The latest version of MOSAIC (a copyrighted software package available from the National Center for Supercomputer Applications at the University of Illinois in Champagne, Ill.) provides a version of HTML that supports a Fill-In Form ("FIF") function where the client is provided with a text-based "form" in which he or she may fill-in the blanks. This "filled-in" information is then transmitted to the central server.
While systems employing HTML FIF provide for a very effective and easily understood means of communicating with a large number of clients via a network, they do have the limitation of being "stateless" systems. That is to say, within these systems, when a server or a client computer begins to process a received script or form, it has no information as to what that particular form is, exactly what information that form will carry, or what operations will be executed as a result of the receipt of that form. Such systems where a communication arrives at a terminal without a history are referred to as stateless--Making reference to the fact that the particular terminal or server that receives a script is in no particular state of preparedness when a given script arrives.
Since the names and structure of data fields are peculiar to a given form, and the recipient of that form is unable to anticipate the particular structure of a form prior to its receipt, it is generally necessary to create a separate executable program for each form, in order to process received data into a format that can be readily interpreted by a server. This being the case, any large scale use of forms would require a plethora of specialized programs to reside in the executable directory of any HTML FIF server. Together with other administrative headaches, this evokes a significant security concern as each of these executable programs would have to be checked for robustness from a security standpoint. As any security system is only as strong as its weakest link, if the number of executable programs is minimized, then the possibility of a security breach is also reduced, and resources could be concentrated upon insuring that the reduced number of programs were subjected to extensive testing and review.